09-30-2025
The Daniels School of Business has formally launched an Investment Banking Academy (IBA), and it comes at an opportune time. The IBA is a transformational experience that links coursework, peer and alumni mentorship, and exposure to leading finance professionals. Select undergraduate students will travel to New York and Chicago to experience the careers and culture on Wall Street.
With significant acceleration of the recruiting timeline on Wall Street, finance students now face technical interviews as early as their sophomore year. To compete, students must master topics long before traditional coursework covers them: mergers and acquisitions, advanced corporate finance and the nuances of banking. The academy and its alumni-based board will provide the essential skills and knowledge to compress preparation into the first two years. The new board members and the academy are ensuring Daniels School graduates don’t just show up for opportunities but sieze them.
As Alexander Boquist, clinical associate professor of finance and the foundational faculty member, explains, this initiative was started by students approximately five years ago to meet the needs of those facing ever-earlier and more challenging recruiting cycles.
“Recruiting for the Summer Analyst program now happens during the spring of your sophomore year. It used to be eight months ahead; now it’s closer to 16 months," Boquist says. "So, this club is necessary for top finance students to get ready for interviews, because they don’t want to get a first-round interview and then not get an offer."
The academy has now formalized this model, building it on pillars of early preparation, targeted mock interviews and close alumni engagement.
“We do a lot of mock interviews — students mock interview each other, then upperclassmen work with the newer students, and finally alumni and career services give the real-world final rounds,” Boquist says.
The IBA positions Daniels School finance students to stand out in a crowded field, especially as “the best way to get those jobs upon graduation is to have an internship after your junior year” and “almost all their full-time positions come from the intern pool,” Boquist recounts. The academy compresses knowledge and skill-building into those all-important freshman and sophomore years, ensuring that “students can hit the ground running.”
The approach is holistic. Kathryn Wieland, executive director for Business Career Services, highlights that the program aims to get the students ready early enough. “There's a lot of technical training around what's required for successful interviewing in this space.”
Blake Saunders, investment partner at Core Advisors and a pivotal figure in the academy’s development, underscores this connection: “The reason why I was excited to get engaged here is that I think we can sort of lean into building strong relationships with skilled professionals helping to deepen the education of students. I think we can have a direct outcome on the best students at the Mitch Daniels school.” Saunders adds, “It’s about the alignment we now have — top-down and bottom-up — which gives me confidence that we can have a really positive impact on student outcomes.”
High-level alumni involvement is a key differentiator. As Eashvar Venkatraman, investment banking associate at Leerink Partners and board member, puts it, “This is an incredible first step to bridging that pathway for the brightest students on campus so they can have a really big impact in the financial services space.” He emphasizes the power of Purdue’s brand, which is strengthening its network in New York, noting the academy's potential to “cultivate open conversations with industry professionals” and help students understand what it takes to thrive in these roles from the start.
David Fox, another prominent board member and partner and co-head of the Sage Fund at Leonard Green & Partners, sees alumni as a “bridge to the real career track,” providing both credibility and support. Successful outcomes, he insists, depend on “the commitment from university, faculty and career services running in the same direction,” with engaged alumni ensuring that students who enter the Academy “are ready to go and a good reflection upon us because we’re going to be lending some of our own credibility towards helping refer them into jobs.”
As Aubrey Ellis, board member and private equity senior associate at GTCR, notes, this support from alumni will not only drive job placements, but also fulfill “a key objective of the Academy” — “creating the ‘alumni flywheel’ of successful grads operating in major financial hubs.” Ellis says, “The flywheel effect is self-reinforcing, as an established network of alumni will enable future placements into those cities.”
The Investment Banking Academy has laid the groundwork to transform futures — not just by opening doors, but by making sure Daniels School students are fully prepared to walk through them and excel.
With this new board and its passionate community, the academy is poised to become a signature asset for the Daniels School, ensuring Purdue’s finance graduates are competitive, confident and connected on Wall Street.
